"I wish the goblins would come and take you away...right now!" Sarah said petulantly, not hearing her cousin's thundering footsteps approaching, and said cousin flying through door into the room to grab onto her baby brother.

"SARAH, NO!" Bella screamed at her. Then all was silent in the room, with the exception of the thunder in the background. It was dead silent.

"Toby?" Sarah asked into the dark room. "Toby, why aren't you crying?" Sarah looked around the now obviously empty room, panic setting in.

"Bella? Bella, come on, this isn't funny!"

Sarah started to hear giggling and the sound of small feet running along the floor. Panic and fear speeding through her system as she spins this way and that, catching glimpses of whatever it was that was running around the room from the corner of her eye, but never succeeding in catching them. Suddenly, the French doors to the balcony off her parent's room blew open and an owl flies into the room, straight at her. She puts her arms up to protect her face, when the owl suddenly leaves her alone. Slowly putting her arms down, she sees instead, a man. A man with wild blond hair with even wilder makeup. Tight pants and a jacket with a high collar. Sarah blinked rapidly for a moment to make sure that the man with glitter swirling around him was truly there.

"You're him, aren't you? You're the Goblin King!" Sarah said with a mix of incredulity and awe.

The man just smiles and places his hands on his hips. Sarah squashes the fear rising in her throat down, and manages to voice her thoughts.

"I want my brother and cousin back, please, if it's all the same."

"What's said is said.." he says simply.

"But...I didn't mean it!"

"Oh, you didn't!" he challenges with a breathy chuckle.

"Please, where are they?" she begs.

"You know very well where they are."

"Please bring them back. Please!" Sarah continues to beg.

"Sarah...go back to your room. Play with your toys and your costumes. Forget about the baby and the girl."

"I can't."

"I've brought you a gift," he says, conjuring a crystal ball.

"What is it," Sarah asks, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"It's a crystal. Nothing more." he tells her simply as he starts to roll is over his hands and arms. "But if you turn it this way, and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl, who takes care of a screaming baby and near catatonic cousin." he taunts her. "Do you want it."

Sarah actually contemplates taking the crystal. The Goblin King sees the wheels in her brain turning as she lifts her chin.

"Then forget them."

"I can't. It's not that I don't appreciate what you've done for me, but I want my family back. They must be so scared and confused."

"Sarah," he says with a warning in his tone, as he turns the crystal ball into a snake. "Don't defy me!"

He throws the snake at her. Her hand going immediately to the reptile that was sure the wrap around her neck. Instead however, the scales of the snake molded under her hand into a scarf, and as she threw it to the ground, a goblin appeared, wearing the scarf. He looks up, gives a wheezy laugh at her expense, and runs off. Sarah hears more laughter behind her, and quickly turns around to see goblins hiding from her view once again. She turns back to the Goblin King.

"You're no match for me, Sarah."

"But I have to have them back!"

The Goblin King walks further into the room to stand at her side as he points to a far off castle, surrounded by an impossible looking labyrinth.

"They're there. In my castle. Do you still want to look for him?" he asks, even though he seems to already know the answer.

"Is that...the castle beyond the goblin city?" she asks, turning to him, only to see that she is no longer standing in her parents room, but on a windy hill not far from the labyrinth itself.

"Turn back, Sarah!" The Goblin King urges. "Turn back before it's too late."

"I can't. Don't you understand that I can't!" Sarah turns once again to the labyrinth.

"What a pity."

"It doesn't look that far," she says bravely.

"It's further than you think," he says lowly, suddenly at her ear, "and time is short." He walks around to her other side and points to a clock in a tree that has 13 hours labeled on it.

"You have 13 hours in which to solve the Labyrinth, before your baby brother and elder cousin become one of us...forever," he challenges as both his person and his voice fade. "Such a pity."

Sarah once again turns back to the Labyrinth with a sigh. "The Labyrinth. It doesn't look that hard! Well, c'mon, feet!" Determination setting in as she set off down the hill.